J K Rowling and Her Million Dollar Story

J K Rowling Success Personified

J. K. Rowling

Joanne Kathleen Rowling, or J K Rowling for short is surely one of the great successes showing forth of the power of the written word and capitalism. Ms. Rowling, needless to say, is the author of the 'Harry Potter' novels, which she began as a series of notes she took while trying to work as a secretary in her mid-20s. When she finally sold the first book's American publishing rights to Arthur A Levine Books/Scholastic Press when she was about 30 years old, J.K. Rowling received enough money to become a full-time author at last. She has said this is the happiest moment of her entire life.

How has she done it? She has a profound understanding of the written word--probably even more profound than she herself consciously knows. While her super best sellers in the "wizard" series officially sell as children's books (partly to give them their own category so that other authors are not kept down on best seller lists), their success is largely due to the fact that adults love these books, too. How can these books appeal so profoundly to both children and adults alike?

For one thing, J K Rowling knows how to tell a story that has universal or cosmic appeal. While her best sellers are set in the modern day United Kingdom (along with the alternative "wizard world" universe next door), they tell a timeless story that strikes everyone's hearts. This story says that there is magic in the world, that dragons and wizards and witches are real, and when people lose sight of this they become somehow lesser, living in ignorance and a quiet kind of despair and, unintentionally, inflicting misery on others. This story says that the most powerful, gifted people are often the most overlooked or normal-seeming because they aren't self-centered. This story says that what is often taken for "normal" or "common sense" is actually just ignorance. This story also says there is a clear difference between what's right and what's wrong, between good and evil.

J K Rowling also knows how to use words with great power. She comes up with words, including proper names, that have a sound that is just perfect. The word "Muggle" used by those with magical gifts to describe those who are "common" and mediocre (most people, especially in the modern world) rings with overtones of words and phrases like "muggy", "mud", "muddling through", "struggle", and "middle" (as in middle class, historically associated with bland mediocrity). The name "Snape" is given to a wizard who once worked for the most evil dark lord of all wizards and now teaches the use of potions for a part of the wizard's university known--fittingly, again--as Slytherin House. Also fittingly, Snape is now a double agent. Then there is the name "Harry Potter" itself--a perfectly middle class, bland, unmagical name for potentially the most powerful of all wizards.

So, yes, J K Rowling is a shining example of the power that words can wield. By using words in the right way, she brings to vivid life a magical world and sets it down perfectly within our own present, enchantment-starved world. We may not all be best-selling fiction authors in waiting, but we can all learn to use words to create our own success story.

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